Taliban chief reported dead in US missile strike

If confirmed, Mehsud’s demise would be a major boost to Pakistani and US efforts to eradicate the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

Mehsud is believed to be responsible for dozens of suicide attacks, beheadings, and target killings in Pakistan. He is allied with Al Qaeda and has been suspected in the killing of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan.

Pakistan views him as its top internal threat and has been preparing an offensive against him. The United States sees him as a danger to the war effort in Afghanistan, largely because of the threat he is believed to pose to nuclear-armed Pakistan.

The missile strike hit the home of Mehsud’s father-in-law in Pakistan’s South Waziristan tribal region early Wednesday. Intelligence officials say Mehsud’s second wife was among at least two people killed, and Mehsud associates have said he was not among the dead.

Pakistan Army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas cautioned that the reports of Mehsud’s death are unconfirmed.

“We are receiving reports and probing,’’ he said.

The US government is also looking into the reports, according to a US counterterrorism official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The counterterrorism official indicated that the United States did not have physical evidence - remains - that would prove who died. But he said there are other ways of determining who was killed in the strike. He declined to describe them.

For years, the United States has considered Mehsud a lesser threat to its interests than some of the other Pakistani Taliban, their Afghan counterparts and Al Qaeda, because most of his attacks were focused inside Pakistan, not against US and NATO troops in Afghanistan.

That view appeared to change in recent months as Mehsud’s power grew and concerns mounted that increasing violence in Pakistan could destabilize the US ally and threaten the region.

In March, the State Department authorized a reward of up to $5 million for the militant chief. And increasingly, US missile strikes - falling by the dozens over the past year - focused on Mehsud-related targets.

While Mehsud’s death would be a big blow to the Taliban in Pakistan, he has deputies who could take his place. Whether a new leader could wreak as much havoc in Pakistan as Mehsud depends largely on how much pressure the Pakistani military continues to put on the Taliban network, especially in South Waziristan.

Pakistan’s record is spotty on that front. It has used military action and truces to try to contain Mehsud over the years, but neither tactic seemed to work, despite billions in US aid aimed at helping the Pakistanis tame the tribal areas.

Mehsud was not that prominent a militant when the United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001 after the Sept. 11 attacks, according to Mahmood Shah, a former security chief for the tribal regions. Mehsud has struggled against such rivals as Abdullah Mehsud, an Afghan war veteran who had spent time in US custody in Guantanamo Bay.

Analysts say the reason for Mehsud’s rise in the militant ranks is his alliances with Al Qaeda and other violent extremist groups.

Mehsud has no record of attacking targets abroad, although he has threatened to attack Washington.